For the record, I am for all of these. I love ’em. With an 8, 6, and 5-year-old and a wife who loves the seashore more than sand crabs – I love ’em more and more and am incredibly thankful for them.

But they sure do make doing ‘church’ in the summer a challenge.

Again, to quote Floyd: “All of these matters combine to become one enormous challenge for the leaders of a church. As a pastor of a local church, this becomes a personal, spiritual challenge for me. People need refreshment. People need a vacation, as do I. Yet, the ministry of the church marches forward.”

This begs a question for us as we are nearing the middle of the summer here in El Dorado: How can FBC El Dorado most effectively ‘march forward’ in June, July and August???

We all have to remember 3 things. . .

1. Pennies.

Ministry cannot happen without money. Sound sacrilegious? Ask Jesus. He relied on it. Mind you, money can’t change hearts for God. But money does ensure more people hear the good news that does. FBC, this year we’ve taken up over $65K more than this time last year. But we’ve also spent a whole lot more. In fact, for the year, we have spent just over $78K MORE than we’ve taken in. Yikes!

Are we bringing in staff and additional ministries? You betcha. That costs money! But consider this: since this time last year we have added 81 new members and baptized 29!! Praise the Lord!

We need staff to keep up with the growth. GREAT! But to continue moving forward in a healthy fashion we MUST give accordingly. Don’t take the summer off from tithing please! Continued kingdom growth will require continued commitment to financial giving.

[Editors Note: If you would be interested in a ‘Direct Deposit’ type deal for your tithe, would you please comment below or email me at gail.beddingfield@fbceldorado.org?? Thanks.]

2. People.

People are critical for summertime church health. And I’m not talking about warm bottoms sitting on soft pews every Sunday.

I mean we need PEOPLE to help us carry on the ministries that ARE going on this summer. I could list a host of summer ministries needing extra workers (visit the website or call the church office for other specifics going on), but for now – let me mention Vacation Bible School. VBS could function if we started it Monday. Several of you have already committed to filling spots. THANK YOU. But there are other spots needing attention that would make this year’s VBS run with excellenceif you would volunteer to help. Can you change a kid’s heart? Nope. But has God chosen to use people like you to be a means of seeing a kids’ heart changed? Yep.

See Bobbi Shepherd tomorrow and tell her you want to help. VBS is July 8th – 12th.

[Editors Note: Husbands, if your wife is wanting another child, let me give you a piece of advice: MAKE HER HELP IN VBS. It will buy you at least another 10 years.]

3. Prayer.

At the end of the day what we all want to see is God move in people’s lives. We want to see lost people saved. We want to see saved people excited. We want to see hard hearts softened. We want to see our church family come to life. At the end of the day pennies and people cannot do that.

But God can. And does. And will. So often, we have not because we . . . .

Brian Trostle and crew have got the Prayer Ministry rockin’ and rollin’. Let him know you want to pray. Let him know you want to know about how you can get involved in praying more specifically.

Pennies. People. Prayer.

Enjoy your summer. Live it up. Take some time off to get away. But please, please, please don’t take off from these areas.

If we – together – commit to these, doing ‘church’ will be easy like Su. . . Well, you get the point.

Blog’s Purpose

Like the men on the Emmaus Road in Luke 24, I long to help "church people" who have a knowledge of the Scriptures experience anew, or for the first time, the risen Christ in their heart. As these men experienced "burning hearts," so I long for traditional church people to have "heart burn" in a different, non-traditional sense. I hope this blog is a small means to help hearts burn for God as they better understand His Word.

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.